Bill to regulate fees in professional colleges introduced

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 22 (UNI) A Bill seeking to regulate admission and fees in self-financing professional colleges in Kerala was introduced in the state Assembly today by Education Minister M A Baby.

The bill, which contains provisions to appoint a fee regulatory committee and an admission supervisory committee, was introduced by the Left Democratic Front Government in the backdrop of the Supreme Court giving the go-ahead to the managements of self-financing colleges to charge the fees prescribed by the Justice K T Thomas Commission from the merit as well as management quota seats.

The 'Kerala Professional Colleges (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-exploitative fees and other measures to ensure equity and excellence in professional education) Bill, 2006 seeks to provide ten per cent seat reservation for SC/ST, 20 per cent to other socially and educationally backward classes, three per cent for the physically challenged and 12 per cent for the other class of weaker sections of society not otherwise covered.

It also prescribes the Common Entrance Test as the basis for admission for professional courses. The bill bans collection of capitation fees and calls for setting up an Admission Supervisory Committee to oversee admission procedure in these colleges.

However, the Opposition criticised the provisions of the bill saying that it would only help private managements. Congress member Aryadan Mohammed pointed out that the provisions of the bill would not be applicable to minority institutions.

Former Revenue Minister and Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani said that since the Bill lacked clarity on many aspects, it would be difficult to get the President's assent.

When in the Opposition, the LDF was demanding that the self-financing colleges should charge only the fee applicable in government-run colleges for the 50 per cent of the seats. However, college managements argued that it would be difficult for them to run the institutions with such a fee structure.

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